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NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying in Talladega rained out

October 18, 2013

Aric Almirola will start on the pole for Sunday's Sprint Cup race in Talladega. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Ford drivers Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose concocted a plan to get toward the front of the grid if Camping World RV 500 qualifying was rained out Saturday morning at Talladega Superspeedway. Chevrolet drivers Jeff Burton had no such plan, so he simply tagged along with them during Friday afternoon's all-important first Sprint Cup practice session.

The result is that Almirola, Burton and Ambrose will start 1-2-3 for Sunday's 188-lap, 500-miler at NASCAR's second-fastest track. When qualifying was rained out, officials used practice speeds to set the 43-car grid. Almirola's best practice lap was 202.000 miles per hour in his No. 43 Ford. Burton's best was 201.987 mph in his No. 31 Chevrolet and Ambrose's best was 201.876 mph in his No. 9 Ford.

Edwards, Biffle and Earnhardt are the best-starting of the 13 Chase for the Championship drivers. Of the other 10: second-ranked Jimmie Johnson and point-leader Matt Kenseth will start 11th and 12th, Ryan Newman 17th, Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer 18th, 19th and 20th, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne 27th and 28th, Kurt Busch 30th, and Kevin Harvick 33rd.

Almirola, Burton and Ambrose were plenty fast on Friday because they drafted together and caught a clear track at just the right moment. “Marcos and I went into practice with a plan to get a big run on the pack and put up a good lap,” Almirola said after his first 2013 pole. (Alas, it won't count toward next year's pole-winners' race at Daytona Beach). “We knew there was a small chance for rain today, so under the circumstances we thought it would be good to put up a good lap, just in case. We had a plan and stuck to it, and it worked.”

This is the first race weekend for the No. 43 team since crew chief Todd Parrott was suspended indefinitely at midweek for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy. RPM General Manger Sammy Johns is “permanent interim” crew chief, a role he figures to give up sometime next week. “It was certainly unexpected and something we weren't excited about,” Almirola said. “It was definitely something that caught us off guard and something we've had to work with day-to-day. Every day has been a little bit different and we're trying to work through it and do the best we can.”

As for the future of Almirola and the team: “We're working on a plan and I'm sure they'll announce it next week as to our plans move forward,” he said. “We have to work through that and will keep that internal until we're ready to announce it. We've sat down and talked about it and tried to come up with the best solution. I'll reiterate that Todd Parrott is a good person and a good crew chief and a good friend. He has a lot of support and people rallying behind him to get through this difficult time. That being said, we have a job to do and have to go out and race and do what's best for us.”

Ambrose said starting up front guarantees nothing except avoiding riff-raff (his term) in the early laps. “We had an expectation of rain on Saturday, so we played our strategy really well as a group,” he said. “We've shown some speed, but it's no guarantee of success on Sunday… it just allows us to stay out of the riff-raff for the first five or six laps. I'll start directly behind Aric and give him a push and get him going, and then hopefully work together to the first pit stop.”

Almirola and Ambrose are 18th and 19th in owner points. Because he's 20th, Burton was sent out in their practice pack. “I was along with them, just along for the ride,” Burton said. “Honestly, there were four cars that went out together and got far enough back so the front pack got doubled up. Once they got doubled up, here we came. I didn't have a grand plan. In the spring, I had a grand plan and I think we were 30th-fastest. Here, I didn't have a grand plan and we were second.”

Burton expects racing on Sunday to be the same as it's been at Talladega in recent years. A group will prefer to run at the front and a group will prefer to run at the back, but most of the field will be two- and three-wide in the middle. He disagrees with those who say Chase drivers – especially those with more to lose than others – can't afford to backslide and run well behind the front pack in hopes of avoiding the inevitable multi-car accident.

“You can sandbag (and still win),” he said. “There's no reason you can't. We saw it (Friday) in practice. I fell back one time just to see how far I could get back, and I sucked right back up to the front pack. You'll see some of the guys in the Chase ride around and you'll see some of them trying to lead as many laps as they can. You'll see a typical Talladega race where some people aren't comfortable running every lap in the front and some are.

“When you go to the back and ride around, when you go (back toward the front) is what's important. If it's a 188-lap race and you take it easy for 100, there's no reason you couldn't get back to the front in 88 laps; no reason in the world. You'll see a mixture of stuff (because) these races are crazy. You never know what's going to happen, but I don't agree with not being able to sandbag.”